Ex-Marine Abductor's Troubled Past

JULY 16--Toby Studabaker, the ex-Marine arrested today on charges that he ran off with a 12-year-old British girl he met on the Internet, was previously nabbed for felony sexual misconduct involving two young female relatives, ages nine and 12. According to the below reports from the St. Joseph County (Michigan) Sheriff's Department, Studabaker groped the breasts and thighs of the older girl and gave the nine-year-old relative a bottle of a bubblegum-flavored sexual lubricant called Wet-n-Ready. The alleged incidents occured while Studabaker was visiting relatives during Christmas 1997. The criminal case against Studabaker, now 31, was subsequently dropped by Prosecuting Attorney Douglas Fisher due to a lack of evidence (Fisher today said that he is "beating myself up" over that decision to decline prosecution). British police today located Shevaun Pennington, the child who traveled with Studabaker from her home in Manchester to Paris, and reunited the girl with her parents. (4 pages)